Riot Blockchain has been facing troubles since its birth. This publicly traded U.S. company has been facing regulatory issues for focusing on blockchain all of a sudden. The company disclosed in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the new venture of the company will be called RiotX and this entity would be focusing on three prime services namely digital wallet, banking, and trading.
This decision of starting a new entity would change Riot’s business focus. Since over two decades the company has been focusing on biotech. In 2017 it rebranded the company for a name ‘Riot Blockchain’ from Bioptix. This was when blockchain became its priority. In the following years, the company ended up acquiring a crypto brokerage. It also announced that it would build a crypto exchange in March 2018.
Seeing this sudden adoption of blockchain technology the SEC summoned the company after a month. The sudden rise in its stock prices was also the reason. Not just this, Last year and even in 2019, the company has made changes in its BOD; it all started with the resignation of its CEO.
On March 14, the company disclosed the SEC filing saying that the new entity named RiotX Holdings Inc, would be taking care of the new exchange. The company further added that its prime focus is on bitcoin mining only.
The company would equip RiotX’s banking services by introducing an API. This API is built with the help of SynapseFi. The users of the banking services would be able to create an account by connecting to the partner banks in the US. Users will be able to maintain and transfer fiat and crypto assets by using this account.
The API will follow the location/address and identity of clients (this is done to stay away from any fraudulent activities).
As Riot Blockchain clarified:
“SynapseFi’s API will enable to Company to know where the user is when accessing RiotX, thereby allowing the company to prevent a user from Montana, a state where the exchange of digital currencies is permitted, from traveling to neighboring Wyoming, where the exchange of digital currencies is not allowed, and using RiotX in the prohibited jurisdiction.
Concerning forthcoming trading services, RiotX will work with ‘Shift Markets.’ Earlier the was supposed to collaborate with a Canadian exchange ‘Coinsquare’ which was canceled due to the SEC examination in 2018.